Chad clashes wound at least 72 soldiers, source says

At least 72 Chadian soldiers wounded in clashes in the northwestern gold-mining region of Tibesti have been taken to hospital since fighting began two weeks ago, a military source said Wednesday.

The Chadian military has been fighting the Miski Self-Defence Committee, a local militia that controls the mining town of Miski, since October 14.

The military source said the wounded soldiers had all been transferred to the military hospital in N'Djamena, Chad's capital.

The fighting began when the militia killed two officers from the mining brigade and wounded nine others in an attack on October 14.

The militia accuses the government of breaching a 2025 peace deal by introducing levies on gold prospectors and carrying out mining in the region. Ahmet Molikini, a spokesperson for the militia, claimed the army had suffered major human and material losses and said Miski remained under militia control.

The Chadian government had not issued an official statement and did not respond to a request for comment.

The 2025 agreement offered a general amnesty for Chadian soldiers and militia members involved in clashes in 2019 and 2020. It also cancelled mining permits and ordered mining suspended in the Miski area while land surveys were completed. A previous deal signed in 2019 was not implemented.